Seemingly every single magazine when talking about ebook readers exclusively mentions the Kindle....they're getting an amazing amount of love from every news organization...is Sony just not very good at marketing their ebook reader? or do they just not care...or is Amazon paying huge bucks to push the kindle down everyone's throat.

Amazon is paying huge bucks to push the kindle down everyone's throats. Readers have been around for years, but press coverage of them didn't really start to happen until the K2 release. Amazon has a great marketing department and a load of cash to push the Kindle out into the public eye.

Not that every article is a paid advertisement, don't get me wrong. But when you pay enough to shove it down everyone's throats, it enters the public conscious (which is why you pay to shove it down everyone's throats) and it becomes a news item that every media outlet must now cover.

Amazon has money and made it a PRIORITY. Sony has money and did the same half-ass thing they always do... make a good product and then leave it out to dry. Part of making a product successful is PR. Sony's REALLY bad at PR. I have a lot of Sony products... they're all great, but hell if I would have heard about them if I relied on standard routes of info.

At the same time.... I don't think the press would have picked up on the Kindle if it wasn't for the whispernet, newspapers, price, selection, etc... Ebooks have been around forever, but the Kindle was a game changer.

While I'm no longer a Kindle user, I'm glad that Amazon's efforts are making ebooks a more frequent topic of discussion. The more commonplace the ebook idea becomes, the more demand there will be, the more books will be available electronically, the lower ebook prices will drop (hopefully), etc. It's a long process, but the Kindle wave might be pushing it along a little quicker.

I'd love to see additional manufacturers (Sony as well as others) do more mainstream advertising. A little healthy competition typically begets progress and innovation.

While I'm no longer a Kindle user, I'm glad that Amazon's efforts are making ebooks a more frequent topic of discussion. The more commonplace the ebook idea becomes, the more demand there will be, the more books will be available electronically, the lower ebook prices will drop (hopefully), etc. It's a long process, but the Kindle wave might be pushing it along a little quicker.

I'd love to see additional manufacturers (Sony as well as others) do more mainstream advertising. A little healthy competition typically begets progress and innovation.

Before the Kindle the Sony was the best marketed electronic reader. Amazon just upped the stakes in the game. As Gideon said, it is not enough to just make the best product in the market, you have to market it too. There are hundreds of best products that no one remembers or even heard about that have been left behind as the market marched on.

I think Sony has always failed to market the required services for the hardware. Hence, their bookstore stinks. Their hardware is great but Sony doesn't know how to handle the "soft" side. They botched SACD, Minidisc, Betamax... Need I go on? Amazon has done a great job with marketing and with providing lots of books at a reasonable price. I'm not crazy about their attempt to tie you to their store, but they've really done a good job of making the Kindle a device that appeals to the modern reader.

I bet that Sony doesn't have a team of people who read these forums and the various blogs to see how to respond to criticism. In contrast, Amazon seems to care a lot about what people think and say about the product. Sony's corporate structure is very unresponsive to the general public.

I had a great high end SACD player from Sony that needed to be sent in for repairs. It came back scratched and dented. I ranted and complained to various channels. They basically shrugged their shoulders and said, "It works, right?" In contrast, I've had emails from Amazon even about customers grousing in the forums about various issues.

Oh well, I still like my Reader, but I am fearful that this will be Betamax to someone else's (not necessarily Kindle) VHS.

Well if Sony can come out with a larger screen device with better hardware and software on it, then people will look at it more in comparison to the DX. At that sort of cost, people tend to do more comparison shopping and less impulse purchases.

Anyway, considering the trouble Sony is supposedly in, I think they're doing a decent job. My impression is that they are doing almost a grassroots campaign. They put ads in strategic places (cities, my fave is the ad they had in the Port Authority in NYC; and blogs with romance readers, to name a few). Putting them on display at Borders and Target, etc. Considering the little amount they've done, they've sold quite well. I actually prefer the targeted advertising (heck, it's what sold me in the first place). Other Sony owners also do a good job spreading the word. What better can you get, than a ringing endorsement from someone who has one?

I had a great high end SACD player from Sony that needed to be sent in for repairs. It came back scratched and dented. I ranted and complained to various channels. They basically shrugged their shoulders and said, "It works, right?" In contrast, I've had emails from Amazon even about customers grousing in the forums about various issues.

I had some pixel "issues" with the first PRS-505 I ordered from Dell(.ca).

When I called Dell they said it's a Sony product and I needed to call them - they did happily supply me with a toll free support number.

When I called Sony they basically said as long as I could still read the letters, no matter how bad the pixels were, I was out of luck. This left a very bad taste in my mouth and I let them know it.

In the end, the only way to resolve my issue was to send the product back to Dell. If I could have found an equivalent, non-Sony product I would have jumped on that. Since I didn't find anything that appealed to me, I re-ordered a Sony from a new store (about 3 weeks left before I actually get my Dell refund).

I had some pixel "issues" with the first PRS-505 I ordered from Dell(.ca).

When I called Dell they said it's a Sony product and I needed to call them - they did happily supply me with a toll free support number.

When I called Sony they basically said as long as I could still read the letters, no matter how bad the pixels were, I was out of luck. This left a very bad taste in my mouth and I let them know it.

In the end, the only way to resolve my issue was to send the product back to Dell. If I could have found an equivalent, non-Sony product I would have jumped on that. Since I didn't find anything that appealed to me, I re-ordered a Sony from a new store (about 3 weeks left before I actually get my Dell refund).

THAT'S HORRIBLE! I hope the new one is much better. Have you gotten it yet?